Toyota has begun applying artificial intelligence in designing new vehicles, formulating text prompts and letting a trained AI model come up with possible car exterior designs.
The company highlights that the technology is advanced enough to process abstract prompts. For example, designers can ask it to come up with a ‘low-drag’, ‘SUV-like’ or ‘trendy’ body style, and the system will generate a convincing output. The video demonstrates how it helps optimize aerodynamic performance.
There are limitations, of course. The AI is still unable to design a whole car from the ground up or take into account all the technical requirements. Even so, its current goal it simply to assist designers with conceptualizing cars and to produce sketches for humans to improve upon – something it excels at already.